Abit Mobo Passively Cools CrossFire

Abit’s passively cooled AN8 Ultra and N18 SLI motherboards went down so well with you guys that we could’ve been forgiven for thinking we’d mis-linked our iPod nano review. Needless to say, we knew you eager laddies and lassies would be keen for more.

Causing the biggest splash will be the AT8 (top), Abit’s own take on ATI’s Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire architecture. Despite being passively cooled by the excellent Silent OTES – I’m not going to describe it again, read about it here – the AT8 makes no compromises in its conversion. Full 4GB peak bandwidth dual graphics card action is supported, along with AMD 64, X2, and FX processors, high definition 7.1 channel audio, SATA II and 4x DDR 400 RAM slots. As you’d expect there is the usual mass of connectivity options including FireWire, an onboard 10/100/1000M Ethernet, two x1 PCI Express slots, two PCI slots, 4x USB2.0 and two USB2.0 headers, S/PDIF… ad infinitum.

Right behind this is the AN8 32X (above), the latest Silent OTES implementation of the nForce SLI x16 chipset from nVidia. AMD socket 939 support is again the order of the day and it mimics the extensive features of the AT8 almost exactly. The KN8-SLI rounds up the latest trio, also catering for AMD CPUs (what’s not to like?) and completes a hat trick of identical features.

Prices and release for the AT8 and AN8 32X have yet to be set, but the KN8 SLI is in shops now and can be found online for a very respectable £82 including VAT. Celebrate, Make Some Noise! After all, the mobos won’t…